Thank you. I dropped the +*.gif etc line and used the near flag. I can now get
my thread including the off site images using

+*showthread.php?t* +*=384721* +&page=*

However, I'm also getting other unwanted threads from the forum in the mirror
directory on my drive. The thread I'm testing has only around 30 short posts
and a handful of images. I would expect the completed mirror directory to be
perhaps a few MB in size.  After 5 minutes it aproaches 50 MB so I cancel the
operation .What should I use to just get my thread and associated images?
Thank you.